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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
the same obligations to him as it would have been if his blood had been spilled in the face of the enemy. I am for none of your technical legislation. You may make it; you may disgrace the Legislature with it, if you will; but it never shall control my principles of legislation. When an act of justice connected with the national honor demands my advocacy, it shall always have it in the face of precedent. If the whole world had condemned a just and righteous act, and I had that imposing precedent before me, I would spurn it, and treat it with that con- tempt which is always due to such examples, which will only be followed by the servile mind that dare not think for itself. ,. 1 Congressional Globe, Part 3, 1857-1858, p. 2953. See Houston's remarks concerning the amendment for half pay for Myra Clark Gaines, June 7, 8, 1858, in this volume. REMARKS ON HIS OWN AMENDMENT TO THE INDIAN DEFICIENCY BILL, JUNE 12, 1858 1 I regret exceedingly that my voice is so much impaired by cold and hoarseness that it will be impossible for me to. do full justice to the subject. I desire to call the attention of the Senator from Arkansas to it. The other evening, understanding that he objected to my amendment, I desired him to explain the reasons for his opposition, in order that I might occupy as little time as possible in answering him. I now repeat the request, and ask the Senator to state the grounds of his objection. [See remarks on June 9, 10.] [Mr. Johnson speaks.] Mr. Houston. I hope, Mr. President, in the present condition of my voice, there may be something like order maintained in the Senate, so that I may be heard by Senators in behalf of Texas. I believe that her security, the preservation of her peace, and the salvation of the lives of her citizens are involved in this question. It is no matter of speculation on the part of Texas; it is no desire of her Senator on this floor to occupy, unnecessarily, a moment of the time of the Senate; but I do it in the maintenance of her rights, and that justice may be done, and the laws carried out. The section of the country to which the Senator from Arkansas has referred, and to which these papers relate, lying between the ninety-eighth and one hundredth degrees of west longitude, was acquired from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians for the ex- press purpose of colonizing and placing on it the wild Indians
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